


Don't even joke about it

by Saetha



Series: O Swallow, have mercy on them [Febuwhump 2021 Prompt Fills] [9]
Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Broken Bones, Buried Alive, Claustrophobia, FebuWhump2021, Happy Ending, Huddling For Warmth, Hurt/Comfort, Hypothermia, M/M, almorst first kiss, almost, no beta we die like Buck’s heterosexuality upon seeing Eddie for the first time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 06:01:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29309244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saetha/pseuds/Saetha
Summary: “You cold?” he asks, immediately admonishing himself for posing such a stupid question. Of course Eddie is. The pain from his leg must be considerable, and he is wetter than Buck. He must be freezing.“A little,” Eddie admits.“Come here.” Without thinking, Buck reaches out, opens his jacket in front, and draws Eddie close to his side, trying to drape as much over him as he can.*Buck and Eddie are caught below ground after a tunnel collapses behind them. They’ll have to look after each other until help arrives.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Series: O Swallow, have mercy on them [Febuwhump 2021 Prompt Fills] [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2138178
Comments: 10
Kudos: 368
Collections: febuwhump 2021





	Don't even joke about it

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ellel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellel/gifts), [vatrica](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vatrica/gifts).



> A quick foray into the 911 fandom, written for my two darlings, Elle & Ivana. Thank you for being the absolute best watch party troupe that a guy could hope for (and generally just being absolutely awesome people)! ❤
> 
> Today's prompt was: Buried alive.

It should have been so simple. Go in, grab the cat, get back out again. The job was small enough that it wouldn’t even have needed the two of them to do it, but it had been a slow day, and both Buck and Eddie had been bored senseless at the station. Of course they’d said yes to go and help when the request came in.

That had been an hour ago, and Buck wishes nothing more than being able to turn back time that one hour so that they could have taken at least a few precautions, done things differently. By the time they’d arrived and crawled into the confusing system of tunnels below the house, the cat had apparently long fled and made its way out another end, far too small for any human to follow. Buck doesn’t know what sort of terrible karma he must have accumulated, but whatever it was, he’s sure that today he’s being paid back in kind. With interest, probably.

“Ngh,” Eddie says from where he is leaning against him.

“They’ll be here soon,” Buck tells him, his voice sounding far more certain than he feels. Neither their coms nor their phones are working down here, but surely, someone must have noticed their predicament. After all, several tons of earth and stone don’t just collapse without it causing some kind of ruckus, right?

“They better. Don’t want to spend any more time here than I have to,” Eddie replies, still sounding rather breathless.

“How’s the leg?” Buck asks him, wincing in sympathy. They had been more than lucky, having escaped the flood of debris when half the ceiling came down behind them, but one particularly far-flung rock had hit Eddie’s shin. Tibia fracture, a clean break it looked like, which, still, has to hurt like hell.

“I’ll live.” Eddie grunts when they he shifts, trying to find a more comfortable position on the ground. It’s cold down here, although not freezing, and the water and dampness isn’t helping, slowly crawling up through their bodies.

“You better.” Buck is trying to sound lighthearted, but isn’t sure that he is actually succeeding at it. “Don’t want to have to explain to Chris that I wasn’t able to save his dad despite being next to him the entire time.”

“Don’t even joke about it.” Despite his words, there is the smallest of smiles pulling at Eddie’s lips. Buck hates how he has every single expression of Eddie’s catalogued, can tell even the smallest of shifts in his mood from the way his face looks. He has spent far too much time staring at him, in particular his lips.

“You’ll be fine,” Buck says, with a mite more conviction than he actually has. Perhaps they _will_ forget about them down here. Or realise far too late, when they are getting close to dehydration, although that’s unlikely to happen with all the water around them. It’s certainly nowhere near _healthy_ to drink, but better than dying.

“Hey.” Eddie presses his knuckles against his arm. “You’re getting lost in bad thoughts again. Knock it out.”

“Right. Easier said than done.” Bucky swallows around the lump forming in his throat. He isn’t good at being idle, never really has been. When he is alone and doesn’t have anything to do, his thoughts will run wild and he seems incapable of stopping them in time before they arrive at more and more hair-raising scenarios. Except, he isn’t quite alone now, is he.

“Then talk to me,” Eddie suggests, as if on cue. “How’s Maddie doing? Haven’t seen her in a while.”

“You saw her just last week.” Bucky frowns. “She and Chim came around for dinner at yours, remember?”

Eddie rolls his eyes. “Yes, of course I do. But that was last week. Work with me here. Or is there anything else you’d rather talk about?”

“Uh. How’s Christopher doing at school?” Buck isn’t dumb, he knows what Eddie is trying to do. He might not have been successful, but that doesn’t mean that Buck can’t be grateful for the attempt at least.

“Now who’s asking dumb questions,” Eddie murmurs, more to himself than for Buck’s ears, of that much Buck is sure. “He’s doing fine. Has finally found some friends that he’s been hanging out with, they even came around the other day. His science project is coming along well, although he’s still not overly keen on Social Studies. He’s been asking for you, you know. Keeps wondering if you’ll take him to the zoo again soon.”

“Of course I will. I miss him.” Buck smiles fondly when he thinks of Christopher. He doesn’t know whether he’ll ever have kids of his own, but even if he doesn’t, seeing Christopher grow up is already one of the greatest gifts he could have hoped for. He opens his mouth to say something else when he can feel a rumble beneath their feet, accompanied by the nauseating sensation of the ground shifting ever so slightly.

“Shit.” Eddie has noticed it, too, points at the water that had previously just been a few puddles on the floor. The puddles are slowly growing larger, beginning to interconnect.

“Must’ve broken a water pipe somewhere,” Buck mumbles, feeling his throat go dry again. “We need to move. Find higher ground or something, if it even exists here.”

“Yeah.” Eddie tries to raise himself up to his knees, but falls back with a shout, face white as a sheet. Buck is next to him in a heartbeat, trying to ignore the way his heart is clenching in his chest when he sees Eddie in pain.

“Easy,” he tells him. “Wait. Let me help.” Eddie doesn’t seem to be happy about the prospect of having to be _helped_ , but he doesn’t resist – he knows well enough that there is no way he can stand up and walk on his own, not at the moment. Buck pushes his shoulder under Eddie’s and slings his arm around his back, taking as much of his weight on himself as he can.

“There. At least the water isn’t rising fast. We should have some time to find somewhere else to wait.”

“Yeah.” It’s more a pant than a real reply, but Buck will take anything he can get. He steps forwards, waiting for Eddie to hobble along beside him, muttering Spanish curses under his breath every time his injured leg is jolted even a little.

Their progress is slow, but they _do_ progress, further down the tunnels, ducking to avoid the low ceiling. The water around their feet begins to rise, although still not at any truly worrying speed; at this rate it will be several hours until it becomes truly life threatening, and even then, the cold from it will likely be the most dangerous thing they will have to deal with, long before the thought of drowning. Still, Buck watches the rising water level warily. He doesn’t particularly fancy freezing _or_ drowning. Besides, he’s never had a problem with tight spaces, but the thought of being trapped down here below the earth, water slowly closing in around them, with nowhere to escape to, sets his teeth on edge.

It takes them longer than Buck would’ve have liked, but finally they find a ledge of earth that will hopefully keep them out of the water for a while, help them warm up as well. Buck lowers Eddie to the ground first, and he grits his teeth as he stretches out his injured leg in front of him.

“Let’s hope we’re not too far from anywhere they could find us,” Buck says as he sits down next to him.

“They aren’t stupid. They’ll know. They’ll find us.” Eddie reaches out to pat Buck’s knee. His touch is far more comforting than Buck would like to admit, and he sighs, trying to relax. He knows panicking won’t be of any use to anyone. And perhaps, if it was just _him_ , he’d be calmer – but Eddie is here too, and he just _cannot_ let anything happen to him. For Eddie’s sake. For Christopher’s sake. And, he quietly has to admit, for his own sake. A soft motion brings his attention back to the presence. He notices that Eddie is shivering, the hand on Buck’s knee trembling ever so slightly.

“You cold?” he asks, immediately admonishing himself for posing such a stupid question. Of course Eddie is. The pain from his leg must be considerable, and he is wetter than Buck. He must be freezing.

“A little,” Eddie admits.

“Come here.” Without thinking, Buck reaches out, opens his jacket in front, and draws Eddie close to his side, trying to drape as much over him as he can.

Eddie begins to move in his direction and then pauses, hesitating.

“You sure?” he asks. Buck rolls his eyes.

“Of course. Come here. You’re not going to go into hypothermia on my watch. Not when I was right here. My clothes are still mostly dry, at least.”

Eddie huffs a quick laugh at that and pulls himself closer, careful not to jostle his injured leg too badly. He sighs just a little when he leans against Buck, clearly appreciating the gesture and what little extra warmth he can get from it. Buck hesitates for a moment, then puts his arm around him. This shouldn’t feel as nice as it does – it’s exactly the wrong time and the wrong place, but still. He’ll take what he can get.

“You’re very warm,” Eddie says. “It’s nice.” Buck swallows past the lump in his throat that has made its place there for totally different reasons than earlier now.

“Uh, thanks?” he replies, somewhat lamely. “Hope it’s enough for both of us. Until they finally come and dig us out.”

“It’ll be fine.” Eddie shudders just ever so slightly and scoots even closer to Buck, until he is practically pressed against him from top to bottom. “They’ll notice.”

“Mhm.” Buck doesn’t want to say that he is slowly beginning to panic again, concentrates on Eddie instead and the way he feels lying next to him. It’s nice. He cannot suppress the wish that it should happen more often. With a little sigh, he drops his head to the side, until his cheek is pillowed by Eddie’s hair. His entire body is tense, waiting for Eddie to pull away, or to object, but Eddie just sighs too. It sounds like a rather happy sigh.

“We should do this more often,” Eddie says.

“What? Get buried alive?” Buck snorts and Eddie laughs.

“No. This.” He gestures at the two of them, at the way they seem to fit so perfectly into each other, like two pieces of a puzzle. Buck’s breath stutters in his chest at his words.

“You mean…being close?” he asks, still not quite wanting to believe what Eddie seems to be implying so clearly. Eddie just chuckles and reaches out with his hand, lets his fingers brush, very deliberately, over the back of Buck’s hand. He becomes more direct when Buck doesn’t pull away, pushes forward until his palm is on top and he can intertwine their fingers.

“Yes,” Eddie says. “If you…don’t object, I mean.”

“No, no I don’t think I do.” Buck swallows and tries to say something else, but somehow, he can’t find the right words, so he just squeezes Eddie’s hand. The smallest of smiles steals across his lips when he can feel Eddie squeeze back. _Maybe I should kiss him_ , one part of him thinks. _Maybe I should wait with kissing him until we aren’t half hypothermic and back to thinking clearly again_ , another one objects.

Eddie tightens his grip around his hand a little.

“Hey. Tell me what you’re thinking?” He sounds unsure and, perhaps, just the tiniest bit afraid that this newly growing, fragile thing between them might break as easily as the tunnels’ ceiling had.

“I was wondering if I should kiss you now, or wait until later,” Buck answers truthfully. There seems to be little reason not to, and he’s not about to start whatever it is that’s between them with a lie.

“Ha,” Eddie chuckles. “I mean. I wouldn’t be adverse to it if you’d want to try now. Might make the time pass a little more pleasantly…” In that, he is right.

Buck shifts his body so that he can easily see Eddie, how he is tilting his head up with the hint of a smile on his face. He leans own, heart beating so loud in his chest that it’s a wonder Eddie can’t heart it.

A loud splash interrupts them, followed by shouting.

“Eddie! Buck!” There is no mistaking Chim’s slightly panicked voice. Eddie sighs in disappointment.

“They could’ve waited just a little bit longer,” he murmurs. Buck snorts with incredulity.

“Here! Chim! We’re here!” he yells back. There is a pause and then the sound of splashing.

“I’ve found them!” That one is obviously not directed at them, but the relief in Chim’s voice is palpable. “Stay where you are, we’ll come get you! Are you okay?”

“Eddie’s got a broken leg, and we’re both cold, but otherwise fine!” Buck shouts. He and Eddie do as they are told and wait in their spot, until a mud-covered Chim appears out of one of the tunnels, a relieved-looking Hen not far behind.

“Oh, thank god.” Chim breathes out a sigh of relief when he sees them. “And here we thought we’d lost you for a moment there.”

“No such luck,” Eddie grins, wincing only a little when Hen begins to assess the state of his leg. “We were doing just fine, more or less.”

“Just fine, yes,” Buck adds, still just a little flustered from the almost-kiss and how fast events have been moving since then. Hen and Chimney exchange a glance, but don’t say anything. They assist them out of the tunnels, and Buck cannot help the giant sigh of relief that escapes his lungs when they are finally out in the open air again. Eddie, still leaning against him, smiles.

“So,” he says quietly when the others are out of earshot. “You up for some dinner some time soon?”

“Yeah, sure. At your place?” Buck’s answer comes almost automatically. They’ve eaten at each other’s place so often that it hardly seems worth mentioning anymore, after all.

“No, I mean…at a restaurant. An actual dinner. You know. Like a date.” Eddie looks more than just a little amused. “Carla can watch Chris, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind.”

“Oh. Oh, that’s.” Buck swallows, feeling a stupid grin creep onto his face. “Yeah, yeah I think I’d like that.”


End file.
